The Isaias family has given large sums to President Obama's campaign. (AP Photo/Mel Evans, File)

(Newser)
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Estefania Isaias was banned from entering the US after getting illegal visas for her maids—a ban that was lifted right around the time the Isaias family donated tens of thousands of dollars to President Obama's campaign, the New York Times reports. The family has given vast sums to several US politicians, including New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, who fought to overturn the ban. Meanwhile, the US has rejected calls to extradite Estefania's father and uncle, Roberto and William Isaias, who have been sentenced to prison in Ecuador in what the country calls a $400 million case involving fraud by their bank.

Menendez pushed hard with the State Department on behalf of Estefania after the travel ban was enforced. He announced the ban's reversal a day after her mother donated $40,000 to the Obama Victory Fund in 2012. The family also gave Menendez's 2012 campaign more than $11,000, NBC New York reports. Menendez's office says the senator "handled this case no differently than we have thousands of other immigration-related requests over the years," and that he often works on out-of-state cases. But the Ecuadorian ambassador calls the move on behalf of a foreign national "quite unusual." As for the brothers, the criminal case against them was questionable, the Times notes, and the US says extradition requests haven't fulfilled legal requirements. Click for the Times' full piece.

----INVASION USA Not Even 1% of Obama’s Amnesty Surge Illegals Are Being Deported Obama’s amnesty created a massive border surge of illegal aliens. While he claimed that they would be deported, they are, unsurprisingly, not being deported. Of the 15,614 families caught crossing the border, but not detained, 4,197 have been ordered removed from the U.S. However, 96 percent of those removal orders were done “in absentia.” The EOIR [Executive Office of Immigration Review] states an “in absentia” order is done when a person fails to show in immigration court. Out of the 1,428 families caught crossing the border and detained, 21have been ordered removed. Forty-three percent of these orders were done “in absentia.” Of the 13,425 unaccompanied children caught crossing the border between July and October, 1,671 have been ordered removed from the U.S. Ninety-two percent of these orders were done “in absentia.” Even the illegal border crossers that have deportation orders, since 92 percent of them were released the vast majority never even bothered to show up in court. The relatively low number of in absentia deportations for ‘families’ suggests that they have serious legal representation which means that these deportation orders are likely to end up coming to nothing once the lawyers have pressed hard enough. So not even 1 percent of the border crossers will be deported. That’sa genuinely broken system and Obama broke it. Helping him break it were Republican amnesty promoters who sent the signal that the GOP was weak on the issue and wouldn’t stand up to Obama. This is what Obama’s idea of immigration reform looks like and it’s open borders with a vengeance.

JimmyH

Dec 21, 2014 2:56 PM CST

WHOA! Newser -Matt Cantor; I know the NY Times gave you permission to cover this story, but let me give you administration---kissing/leftist/propagandist/media flunkies credit where credit is due: GOOD. Is this sudden exposure of truth going to be a trend? now that all the damage is near done? It's about time you became a Journalist.